Note:This course is designed to be used by both lecture students and internet students. Though textbooks are available at the bookstore (see below) all readings are available online. This requires you to have a reliable internet connection. Talk to me if this poses problems for you. Also be sure to let me know if links no longer work.
Also Note: I do not use WebCT, so you dont have to worry about logging into that site.
Course Description: This is the second of the two required classes designed to familiarize you with the nature of national state and local government. This section focuses primarily on the institutions established in the U.S. and Texas Constitutions, as well as local city charters. We will look indepth at the nature of legislative, executive and judicial power as well as the relationships that exist between them. We will look at all aspects of these institutions, including the history behind each, their constitutional design, the internal organization and current issues associated with them. We will attempt to spend equal amouns of time looking at the national, state, and local institutions.
Readings: All of the readings in this class are available online. Look at the calendar below and you will notice a variety of subjects listed next to dates. Click on the appropriate subject and you will be taken to a separate page that will contain some basic text, plus a variety of links taking you to additional information about the subject matter. You will also see a variety of study guide questions and the appropriate assignment, which will vary depending on whether you are a lecture or online student.
You'll notice that I often link to Wikipedia pages, the open-sourced web based encyclopedia. Wikipedia is often criticized as being unreliable and subject to manipulation. In some cases entries are edited by people who wish to bias the information contained in the article for self interested reasons. In some cases this is true, but the site has become increasingly reliable, especially with relatively non-controversial or hisltorical topics. I have found the range of articles available to be impressive. There is easily accessible information available there, that simply cannot be found elsewhere. I have found it to be very useful for my purposes. Perhaps its best feature is that it records all edits and allows for discussions of controveries associated with how subjects are discussed.
Here are some links that touch on controversies associated with Wikipedia:
If you wish to use a traditional textbook, the following two are available in the bookstore:
Lowi, Theodore, Benjamin Ginsberg and Kenneth Shepsle. American Government. 10th Edition. New York: W.W. Norton.
Brown, Lyle et al. Practicing Texas Politics. 13th Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
You will notice that I also maintain a blog where I post, more or less, daily items pertaining to the subject matter of the class. I want you to go to the page and subscribe to it. That way you will be able to recive information regarding not only what we will cover in the class, but also notices about the class itself.
Grading: A = 89.5 - 100; B = 79.5 - 89.5; C = 69.5 - 79.5; D = 59.5 - 69.5; F 59.5 - 0
Your grade will be based on the following:
Weekly Quizes and/or Written Assignments (60%)
Cumulative Final (20%)
Paper #1: Review the Texas Legislative Session (10%)
Paper #2: Outline a Public Policy Issue before the U.S. Congress (10%)
Weekly Quizes and/or Written Assignments: Each week we will have a quiz on the material we covered that week, if you are a lecture students, or a small set of written questions, if you are an internet student. This is meant not only to evaluate your understanding of the material but to give me an idea about how well I am communicating it. For my lecture students, there will be no specific format for these quizes. They can be a combination of multiple choice questions, true and false questions, fill in the blanks and short answers. The internet students will be given almost exclusively short answer questions. I will feel free to ask questions about current events as well as lecture material.
Cumulative Final: On the last day of class I will give you a cumulative exam which will cover the range of material we covered in the previous lectures.
Paper #1: Review the Texas Legislative Session: The 81st Session of the Texas Legislature has just ended. Every other year, the Texas House and Senate meets in the capitol for 140 days to establish policy, as required by the Texas Constitution. It has been a very peculiar session, as most are, but it seems that little in fact got accomplished. For some (perhaps many) this is perfectly fine, but others it was not. Some problems facing Texas either were not addressed or were addressed superficially. I want you to become familiar with what did and did not happen this session and the various opinions that have been offered about it. I want you to use, or improve, your web searching skills to uncover who is saying what about the session, and detail what is being said by whom. Please answer in at least 1000 words and turn it in to me by midnight June 21st. This deadline applies to both the 5 week and 11 week classes. Please do your work using Microsoft Word as your word processing software and email the paper to kjefferies@alvincollege.edu. If you do not have that software, please paste the paper into an email.
Paper #2: Outline a Public Policy Issue before the U.S. Congress: This has been, and continues to be, an ambitious Congressional session. A variety of public policy issues have been addressed already, and even more are on the agenda. In order to become more familiar with the public policty process, I want you select a policy area and detail it well as you can in 1000 words. I will list a variety of policies you may wish to focus on soon. These will include policies on the environment, energy, education, health care, terrorism, transportation, and many others. There is enough to go around, so I want you to select something soon, and I want everyone to select a different issue. I also want you to do this work on the wiki. I've started a page, click here to go to it, where I want you to do your work. I'll begin a series of pages on public policies, and I once you select one, I want you to do your work on that page.
Due date for 5 week class: July 13
Due date for 11 week class: August 12
Regarding Student Behavior: You are adults and will be expected to act accordingly. This is true whether you are in my lecture or online classes. Lecture students, do not sleep or engage in idle chatter in the classroom. Unruly students will be asked to leave. I encourage active discussion, so be prepared to state your opinions and justify them. I also expect you to come to class prepared to discuss the material at hand. Be ready to be called on at any moment to answer questions about the subject matter.
Online students, I expect you to do your own work. This means that you will not ask anyone else to write papers for you, or you will not simply copy text from various sources and tell me you did it.
Among the Founders, proper behavior was considered to be a necessary mark of a civilized person and a requirement for political participation. Read through Washington's Rules for Civility and Decent Behavior are a great example. Consider adopting a few.
Please Note: If you have any disabilities or other special needs that will affect your ability to learn in this class, please inform me of them. Appropriate steps will be taken to make reasonable accomodations and assist you with your needs.
Scholastic Dishonesty: If you cheat in any way in this class and are caught, you will fail the course. Do not download items from the internet and pass them off as your own.
The links below will take you to the readings and assignments for each week.
Kevin Jefferies
Office: D-225
Office Phone: 281-756-3736
email: **kjefferies@alvincollege.edu**
class blog: **http://theweakerparty.blogspot.com/**
GOVT 2302 - 01 (5 Week)
GOVT 2302 - INC (11 week)
Note: This course is designed to be used by both lecture students and internet students. Though textbooks are available at the bookstore (see below) all readings are available online. This requires you to have a reliable internet connection. Talk to me if this poses problems for you. Also be sure to let me know if links no longer work.
Also Note: I do not use WebCT, so you dont have to worry about logging into that site.
Course Description: This is the second of the two required classes designed to familiarize you with the nature of national state and local government. This section focuses primarily on the institutions established in the U.S. and Texas Constitutions, as well as local city charters. We will look indepth at the nature of legislative, executive and judicial power as well as the relationships that exist between them. We will look at all aspects of these institutions, including the history behind each, their constitutional design, the internal organization and current issues associated with them. We will attempt to spend equal amouns of time looking at the national, state, and local institutions.
Readings: All of the readings in this class are available online. Look at the calendar below and you will notice a variety of subjects listed next to dates. Click on the appropriate subject and you will be taken to a separate page that will contain some basic text, plus a variety of links taking you to additional information about the subject matter. You will also see a variety of study guide questions and the appropriate assignment, which will vary depending on whether you are a lecture or online student.
You'll notice that I often link to Wikipedia pages, the open-sourced web based encyclopedia. Wikipedia is often criticized as being unreliable and subject to manipulation. In some cases entries are edited by people who wish to bias the information contained in the article for self interested reasons. In some cases this is true, but the site has become increasingly reliable, especially with relatively non-controversial or hisltorical topics. I have found the range of articles available to be impressive. There is easily accessible information available there, that simply cannot be found elsewhere. I have found it to be very useful for my purposes. Perhaps its best feature is that it records all edits and allows for discussions of controveries associated with how subjects are discussed.
Here are some links that touch on controversies associated with Wikipedia:
- Dean's World.
- EDUCAUSE.
- Reliability of Wikipedia, from Wikipedia itself.
If you wish to use a traditional textbook, the following two are available in the bookstore:
Lowi, Theodore, Benjamin Ginsberg and Kenneth Shepsle. American Government. 10th Edition. New York: W.W. Norton.
Brown, Lyle et al. Practicing Texas Politics. 13th Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
You will notice that I also maintain a blog where I post, more or less, daily items pertaining to the subject matter of the class. I want you to go to the page and subscribe to it. That way you will be able to recive information regarding not only what we will cover in the class, but also notices about the class itself.
Grading: A = 89.5 - 100; B = 79.5 - 89.5; C = 69.5 - 79.5; D = 59.5 - 69.5; F 59.5 - 0
Your grade will be based on the following:
Weekly Quizes and/or Written Assignments (60%)
Cumulative Final (20%)
Paper #1: Review the Texas Legislative Session (10%)
Paper #2: Outline a Public Policy Issue before the U.S. Congress (10%)
Weekly Quizes and/or Written Assignments: Each week we will have a quiz on the material we covered that week, if you are a lecture students, or a small set of written questions, if you are an internet student. This is meant not only to evaluate your understanding of the material but to give me an idea about how well I am communicating it. For my lecture students, there will be no specific format for these quizes. They can be a combination of multiple choice questions, true and false questions, fill in the blanks and short answers. The internet students will be given almost exclusively short answer questions. I will feel free to ask questions about current events as well as lecture material.
Cumulative Final: On the last day of class I will give you a cumulative exam which will cover the range of material we covered in the previous lectures.
Paper #1: Review the Texas Legislative Session: The 81st Session of the Texas Legislature has just ended. Every other year, the Texas House and Senate meets in the capitol for 140 days to establish policy, as required by the Texas Constitution. It has been a very peculiar session, as most are, but it seems that little in fact got accomplished. For some (perhaps many) this is perfectly fine, but others it was not. Some problems facing Texas either were not addressed or were addressed superficially. I want you to become familiar with what did and did not happen this session and the various opinions that have been offered about it. I want you to use, or improve, your web searching skills to uncover who is saying what about the session, and detail what is being said by whom. Please answer in at least 1000 words and turn it in to me by midnight June 21st. This deadline applies to both the 5 week and 11 week classes. Please do your work using Microsoft Word as your word processing software and email the paper to kjefferies@alvincollege.edu. If you do not have that software, please paste the paper into an email.
Paper #2: Outline a Public Policy Issue before the U.S. Congress: This has been, and continues to be, an ambitious Congressional session. A variety of public policy issues have been addressed already, and even more are on the agenda. In order to become more familiar with the public policty process, I want you select a policy area and detail it well as you can in 1000 words. I will list a variety of policies you may wish to focus on soon. These will include policies on the environment, energy, education, health care, terrorism, transportation, and many others. There is enough to go around, so I want you to select something soon, and I want everyone to select a different issue. I also want you to do this work on the wiki. I've started a page, click here to go to it, where I want you to do your work. I'll begin a series of pages on public policies, and I once you select one, I want you to do your work on that page.
Due date for 5 week class: July 13
Due date for 11 week class: August 12
Regarding Student Behavior: You are adults and will be expected to act accordingly. This is true whether you are in my lecture or online classes. Lecture students, do not sleep or engage in idle chatter in the classroom. Unruly students will be asked to leave. I encourage active discussion, so be prepared to state your opinions and justify them. I also expect you to come to class prepared to discuss the material at hand. Be ready to be called on at any moment to answer questions about the subject matter.
Online students, I expect you to do your own work. This means that you will not ask anyone else to write papers for you, or you will not simply copy text from various sources and tell me you did it.
Among the Founders, proper behavior was considered to be a necessary mark of a civilized person and a requirement for political participation. Read through Washington's Rules for Civility and Decent Behavior are a great example. Consider adopting a few.
Please Note: If you have any disabilities or other special needs that will affect your ability to learn in this class, please inform me of them. Appropriate steps will be taken to make reasonable accomodations and assist you with your needs.
Scholastic Dishonesty: If you cheat in any way in this class and are caught, you will fail the course. Do not download items from the internet and pass them off as your own.
The links below will take you to the readings and assignments for each week.
Calendars:
GOVT 2302 - 01 (5 Week)
Week One (June 9 - 11)
- Introduction to class
- Pre Test
- Overview of the U.S. and Texas Constitutions
- multiple choice quiz June 11
Week Two (June 15 - 18)
- The Legislature: Historical Background.
- The Legislature: Constitutional Design.
- The Legislature: Evolution and Current Organization.
- The Legislature: Contemporary Issues.
- multiple choice quiz June 18
Week Three (June 22 - 25)
- The Executive: Historical Background.
- The Executive: Constitutional Design.
- The Executive: Current Organization.
- The Executive: Contemporary Issues.
- multiple choice quiz June 25
Week Four (June 29 - July 2)
- The Judiciary: Historical Background.
- The Judiciary: Constitutional Design.
- The Judiciary: Current Organization and Personel.
- The Judiciary: Contemporary Issues.
- multiple choice quiz July 2
Week Five (July 6 - 9)
- Review of Public Policy assignment.
- Citizenship and the Maintenance of the Republic.
- short paper due July 13
Final: July 13
GOVT 2302 - INC (11 week)
Week One (June 9 - 11
- Introduction and Pre Test (Lecture Classes Only)
- Overview of the U.S. and Texas Constitutions
Online Student's Written Work due: June 14
Week Two - June 15 - 18
- The Legislature: Historical Background.
Online Student's Written Work due: June 21
Week Three - June 22 - 25
- The Legislature: Constitutional Design.
Online Student's Written Work due: June 28
Week Four - June 29 - July 2
- The Legislature: Evolution and Current Organization.
- The Legislature: Contemporary Issues. (note: I've removed this section from my internet reading list, you do not have to answer questions from this section)
Online Student's Written Work due: July 5
Week Five - July 6 - 9
- The Executive: Historical Background.
Online Student's Written Work due: July 12
Week Six - July 13 - 16
- The Executive: Constitutional Design.
Online Student's Written Work due: July 19
Week Seven - July 20 - 23
- The Executive: Current Organization.
- The Executive: Contemporary Issues. (note: I've removed this section from my internet reading list, you do not have to answer questions from this section)
Online Student's Written Work due: July 26
Week Eight - July 27 - 30
- The Judiciary: Historical Background. (Answer 2 questions)
- The Judiciary: Constitutional Design. (Answer 2 questions)
Online Student's Written Work due: August 2
Week Nine - August 3 - 6
- The Judiciary: Current Organization and Personel.
- The Judiciary: Contemporary Issues. (note: I've removed this section from my internet reading list, you do not have to answer questions from this section)
Online Student's Written Work due: August 9
Week Ten - August 10 - 12
- Citizenship and the Maintenance of the Republic.
Online Student's Written Work due: August 16
Week Eleven - August 17
Paper #2 due on August 18th
Finals are Cancelled